1858
297.
TO LOUIS BLANC
Jan. 11. 1858
Mon cher Monsieur Louis Blanc
Je n’ai aucune raison pour ne pas vouloir être cité comme l’auteur de la brochure sur la Révolution de Février. Au contraire je me réjouirais d’associer mon nom à cette protestation en faveur de principes qui sont les miens, et d’hommes que je respecte profondément.
Ma femme me charge de vous offrir l’expression de sa sympathie dans votre travail justificatif.
tout à vous
J. S. Mill
298.
TO JOHN HOLMES
Jan. 19. 1858.
Dear Sir—
I am very much obliged to you for sending me the paper which you read at the Birmingham meeting. I only knew enough of the Leeds experiment to be aware that it had been very successful; & of the Rochdale one, only a little more. I now know the particulars of the success, & some of the details of the plan, & I hope as occasions arise to make my knowledge useful. The only doubt which could reasonably be entertained about the success of cooperation in this country, was grounded on the low moral & intellectual condition of the masses. Your success & that of the Rochdale Association proves that there are at least two bodies of workpeople to be found who are sufficiently free from shortsighted selfishness—for that is really all that is required—to be capable of succeeding in such an enterprise, and the results, economically considered, as exhibited in your paper, are so advantageous that they can hardly fail to call forth imitators. It is now shewn that with honest & intelligent management, cooperative establishments can undersell individual dealers. But to do this, the management must be honest & intelligent. If the experience of cooperation teaches the working classes the value of honesty & intelligence to themselves, it will work as great a moral revolution in society as it will, in that case, a physical. But it will never do the last without the first, and that you see this so clearly, gives me much confidence in the value of your influence, & hopes of the permanency of your success. I am yrs very truly
John Holmes Esq
- The People’s Flour Mill
- Leeds
299.
TO ARTHUR MILLS
Jan. 23. [1858]
Dear Sir
I return your proofs with a few pencil marks in the margin.
In the earlier facts as stated by you there are some about which I feel doubtful. I have no doubt you have always good authority for them, but they are sometimes apparently deficient in explanations which would give them a somewhat different colour from that which they now bear. I have marked all such passages for your judgment. But generally speaking your statements are strictly accurate.
I am
Very faithfully yrs
J. S. Mill
300.
TO ARTHUR MILLS
Feb. 17. 1858
Dear Sir
I send you as requested a note of the points which have occurred to me as requiring correction in your book. They are mostly very trifling, but some few are important.
I am
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
301.
TO MARY MILL COLMAN
Feb. 20. 1858
Mary—
I have received your note of Feb. 15. I do not know why you write to me after so long an interval if you cannot shew more good sense or good feeling than are shewn in this note. There is besides, a total want of modesty in supposing that I am likely to receive instruction from you on the subject of my strongest convictions —which also were those of your father. There is certainly nothing in your note to make me desire that there should be any more communication between us than there has been for many years past.
J.S.M.
302.
TO GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
Feb. 21. 1858
Dear Sir—
It gave me much pleasure to see your handwriting after so many years interval. I did not answer your first note when I received it, because I hoped in answering it to have said that I had been able to do something for Dr Laurenza. I have been disappointed of this, through his not obtaining a certificate from Dr Scott, the E.I.C’s examining physician, without which no one is appointed to the medical charge of troops. I do not understand clearly from Dr L. what are Dr Scott’s objections. They are very probably quite unreasonable; but I have no power of overruling them, & unfortunately I have no interest or influence that can be useful to Dr L. in any other quarter though I shall lose no opportunity if any should chance to offer, as I regret much my inability to be of service to an Italian patriot & a friend of yours.
When I began writing to you I thought that this country was meanly allowing itself to be made an appendage to Louis Bonaparte’s police for the purpose of hunting down all foreigners (& indeed English too) who have virtue enough to be his avowed enemies. But it appears we are to be spared this ignominy; & such is the state of the world ten years after 1848 that even this must be felt as a great victory.
I sympathize too strongly both with your taste for solitude & with the devotion of your time & activity to the great object of your life, to intrude on you with visits or invitations. We, like you, feel that those who would either make their lives useful to noble ends, or maintain any elevation of character within themselves, must in these days have little to do with what is called society. But if it can be any pleasure to you to exchange ideas with people who have many thoughts & feelings in common with you, my wife & I reckon you among the few persons to whom we can sincerely say that they may feel sure of being welcome.
I am Dr Sir yours very truly
303.
TO EDWIN CHADWICK
March 9. 1858
Dear Chadwick
The inclosed Memorandum supplies answers to some of the grossest misstatements in Ashworth’s paper.
If you look through the last 20 pages of Dr Royle’s pamphlet which I send, you will learn more to your present purpose than I can tell you.
ever yrs
in haste
J. S. Mill
304.
TO PASQUALE VILLARI
le 9 mars 1858
Mon cher Monsieur Villari
Vos deux lettres, dont la dernière porte la date du 10 janvier, méritaient bien une réponse plus prompte. Je vous prie de ne pas voir dans le retard que j’y ai mis, une preuve d’indifférence aux sentiments d’amitié que vous voulez bien me témoigner. Ce retard vient de la multiplicité de mes occupations, et surtout de la lutte que la Compagnie des Indes, dont je suis un des employés, soutient maintenant pour son existence. Le gouvernement Anglais se propose d’arracher à la Compagnie la part qu’elle conserve encore dans l’administration de l’Inde. L’ignorance du public ne permet pas d’espoir que la Compagnie puisse s’en tirer; mais il importe qu’elle succombe honorablement, et que sa cause soit plaidée d’une manière digne d’un gouvernement qui a été, j’ose le dire, unique dans le monde par la pureté de ses intentions et par la bienfaisance de ses actes. Cette tâche étant devolue surtout à moi, elle a dû être depuis quelque temps ma principale occupation.
Cependant depuis l’ouverture du parlement, une question d’un intérêt encore plus vif est venue compliquer la situation. Je veux parler de la misérable tentative du ministère Palmerston de traîner la nation anglaise dans la boue, en faisant d’elle une succursale de la police française. Nous sommes sauvés pour le moment de cet avilissement, par la chute du ministère, qui, tout puissant en apparence un mois auparavant, a été chassé du pouvoir par la combinaison de ses ennemis naturels avec ceux qui lui ont retiré leur appui à cause de son indigne soumission à des exigences déshonorables au pays. Cet événement m’a comblé de joie; cependant je ne suis pas encore rassuré: les successeurs de Lord Palmerston ne valent pas mieux que lui, et il n’est rien moins que certain qu’ils ne seront pas, au fond, tout aussi obséquieux. S’ils ne font pas une nouvelle loi, ce qui est encore douteux, ils feront certainement tout le mal possible au moyen des lois existantes, et celles-là sont déjà bien assez odieuses: heureusement il nous reste le jury, et la presse indépendante exerce sur lui une certaine influence. Vous voyez par la part qu’il a prise dans cette affaire que Lord John Russell a du bon, quoique vous l’ayez parfaitement bien jugé être un homme très médiocre. Tel qu’il est, il vaut encore mieux que la plupart de nos soi-disant hommes d’état, qui, s’ils savent quelque chose, ne savent que les traditions de la politique anglaise, soit conservatrice, soit libérale mais qui sont d’une ignorance profonde sur la politique générale, et sur les idées et l’histoire des autres pays.
J’espérais vous offrir depuis longtemps mon petit livre sur la liberté, mais plusieurs raisons m’ont décidé à ne pas le faire imprimer cet hiver. Au reste, il n’a guère de valeur que pour l’Angleterre. Il traite de la liberté morale et intellectuelle, en quoi les nations du Continent sont autant au dessus de l’Angleterre qu’elles lui sont inférieures quant à la liberté politique.
Ma femme me charge de vous faire ses compliments. Elle s’intéresse autant que moi à la cause de l’Italie et aux patriotes et philosophes Italiens. Nous espérons bien vous voir avant peu, soit ici, soit peutêtre à Florence. Algernon Taylor se rappelle à votre souvenir. Sa santé est toujours très faible. Moi même je me porte assez bien. Je serai charmé d’avoir de vous la longue lettre dont vous me parlez, et j’espère y répondre une autre fois moins tardivement. Votre dévoué
J. S. Mill
305.
TO AN UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT
March 11, 1858
Dear Mrs [name heavily blacked out]
It seems to me that in a matter so entirely domestic and personal, no one can interfere but yourself. I imagine that you should see the man, tell him what your opinion is, and arrange it with him as you find best. It is the sort of small annoyance to which every body is liable, and which every body must settle for themselves.
I am
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
306.
TO WILLIAM NEWMARCH
March 20, 1858
Dear Sir—
I have been turning over in my mind the proposal which was the subject of your note of the 17th, for founding a Professorship at King’s College in the name of Mr Tooke. In so far as its object is to pay honor to Mr Tooke I entirely sympathise with it. Few persons have rendered greater services to P. Economy & its applications than Mr Tooke, & the value of what he has done is likely to be rated more & more highly as the subject is better understood & as the ephemeral controversies of the present time die away. But I am not certain that the best mode of demonstrating respect to his memory is the one suggested. It does not seem to me that the persons, of more or less merit, in whose name professorships have been founded at the Universities, are remembered to any purpose through those endowments. I for one do not even know when most of them lived or who they were. The present plan has certainly the recommendation of aiming at public usefulness. But to endow a permanent Professorship to an amount worth accepting by any eminent man, with the interest of subscriptions, would require a much larger sum than I shd think it would be possible to raise. And would the lecture be attended? There is a Professorship of Pol. Ec. at Univ. College but I believe there are hardly ever any pupils. This brings me to what is with me a decisive objection against the plan as connected with King’s College, namely that it is a distinctively Church Institution. I have been fighting all my life for the principle of Schools & Colleges for all, not for Churchmen or any other class of religionists & I believe Mr Tooke’s opinions on the subject were exactly the same, while K.C. was founded in avowed opposition to religious equality, as the National Schools were founded in opposition to the Lancastrian. I have always refused to support any kind of Church schools & for the same reason I could not join in giving any additional advantages to a Church College over those which are bound by their constitution to religious neutrality.
I am Dr Sr yrs very truly
J.S.M.
307.
TO GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
April 15. 1858
Dear Sir—
I heartily wish that I knew where to find such a young man as you describe. He is wanted for many other purposes besides that which you are aiming at. But I do not know of any such person.
Your project is a very good one if it could be successful. But of this there seems little chance. Even supposing the indifference of the English to foreign affairs overcome, you would probably find that you had only substituted one obstacle in the place of another. The English, of all ranks and classes, are at bottom, in all their feelings, aristocrats. They have some conception of liberty, & set some value on it, but the very idea of equality is strange & offensive to them. They do not dislike to have many people above them as long as they have some below them. And therefore they have never sympathized & in their present state of mind never will sympathize with any really democratic or republican party in other countries. They keep what sympathy they have for those whom they look upon as imitators of English institutions—Continental Whigs who desire to introduce constitutional forms & some securities against personal oppression—leaving in other respects the old order of things with all its inequalities & social injustices and any people who are not willing to content themselves with this, are thought unfit for liberty. There is here & there an Englishman who is an exception, but if all the exceptions were to unite I doubt their making much impression on English policy. Even Louis Napoleon was never really unpopular here until he was supposed to have insulted & threatened England.
yrs very truly
308.
TO PATRICK O’CALLAGHAN
April 17. 1858
Sir
In reply to your letter of the 9th inst. I beg to say that I have not the honor of being a member of the British Association, unless the body which met at Birmingham last year to discuss subjects connected with Social Science, has merged in the older Association; but in any case I have no prospect of having to prepare any paper for the meeting in September next, nor of being able to attend the meeting.
I am Sir
yr obt Servt
J. S. Mill
P. O’Callaghan Esq
etc. etc.
309.
TO JOHN ELLIOT CAIRNES
April 22, 1858
Dear Sir
Since receiving your note, I have read your volume of Lectures a second time through, and I find my original opinion confirmed, that its view of the logic of Political Economy is thoroughly sound and philosophical, and expressed in clear and precise language. This is the most cardinal point of all in an Examiner, whose object should be to test the general direction of the pupil’s faculties, still more than his positive acquirements. But your book also shews what appears to me a thorough knowledge of the questions of political economy which it touches on, and these are some of the most important.
If this expression of opinion can be of any assistance in promoting your object, you are most welcome to make use of it.
I am Dr Sir
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
310.
TO J. BRITTEN
July 1.1858
Sir—
I have to acknowledge a letter from you dated June 24.
You are not the first, nor the hundredth person who has thought that he was able to prove “that a large majority of the principles or dogmas usually accepted by economists as being the settled principles of the science are wholly fallacious.” I have read many such attempts: some of them more or less ingenious, others merely stupid, but all shewing equal incapacity of seeing through the most obvious paralogisms: and not only did none of them, in my judgment, effect their object, but I have rarely found that anything was to be learnt from them, even incidentally. Having obtained no better fruit from a considerable course of such reading, I may claim to be excused from giving time which I can ill spare, to the examination of any new attempts of the kind, unless I have some special reason to expect that it will differ very much in character from its predecessors. And I certainly cannot accede to your proposal, that I should not merely study the book which is to refute me and all other political economists, but also assist you in writing it. I am Sir yr obt Sert
311.
TO CHARLES DUPONT-WHITE
le 1 juillet 1858.
Monsieur
Si j’ai un peu tardé à répondre à la lettre que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de m’adresser il y a plus d’un mois, c’est que je voulais auparavant avoir le temps de donner à votre important ouvrage, la lecture soigneuse qu’il mérite.
Je vois dans ce livre, l’exposition la plus philosophique qu’on ait donnée jusqu’ici des principes qu’on peut invoquer en faveur de l’intervention gouvernementale. Si je trouve que vous n’avez pas toujours donné un poids suffisant aux raisons du côté opposé je dois reconnaître que vous en avez au moins rendu compte avec une sincérité et une impartialité dignes d’un écrivain qui met la vérité et le bien public au dessus du triomphe de son opinion.
Vous avez vu par le dernier chapitre de mon Traité, qu’il y a bien des points de contact entre votre manière de voir et la mienne. Il n’y a entre nous d’autres différences que celles qui peuvent exister entre penseurs. J’adhère à tout ce que j’ai écrit sur la question que vous avez traitée, et j’accorde qu’il était temps que le gouvernement général de l’Angleterre se mêlât jusqu’ à un certain point de surveiller des institutions locales d’ailleurs fort mal organisées, et plus corrompues encore que l’état. Malgré cela, je trouve très dangereuse la tendance que vous signalez par l’expression que “l’Angleterre s’administrative” [sic] ; et cela surtout par la raison qu’une nation qui se repose sur son gouvernement du soin de penser pour elle dans les affaires pratiques de la vie sociale, n’est pas et ne peut pas être libre. Je ne connais rien de plus fatal à la liberté qu’une bureaucratie très capable et très fortement organisée, à la tête d’un peuple qui ne cultive pas, par une active gérance de ses intérêts collectifs, le sens pratique des affaires sociales.
J’ai l’honneur d’être
Monsieur
Votre dévoué serviteur
J. S. Mill
312.
TO THOMAS CARLYLE
July 8. 1858
My dear Carlyle
Mr Russell, the young man who wrote to you about the Poona Professorship, called on me the day after I received your note. He seemed a reasonable and modest person enough, but with rather vague notions about the nature of the information he was in quest of. I was able however to give him some particulars about the prospects of personal advancement, and the general eligibility of the position of a teacher of Hindoos. I also recommended to him such books as I thought most worth his reading.
You are well out of dusty London at this season; though we by no means find it necessary to go so far as Annan for the calm and silence you speak of. We have a quiet corner down here, where we shall be at any time happy to see you.
Very truly yours
J. S. Mill
313.
TO HENRY SAMUEL CHAPMAN
East India House. July 8. 1858
My dear Chapman
You are a much better correspondent than I am. I really do not know how many letters I have received from you since I wrote one. I am always busy, and have been particularly so of late; but your last letter especially (dated Feb. 14) contains so many points of interest, that I will not delay any longer replying to it.
The history it contains of the constitutional changes which have succeeded one another in your colony since what may be called its enfranchisement, has connected and made intelligible the scattered information I had picked up from the newspapers. You have certainly now obtained a very democratic constitution, and I am glad to see by the papers that you have yourself, since you wrote, had the forming of an administration to work it. No constitution, less democratic, would be either practicable, or probably desirable in the long run, in a society composed like that of the Australian colonies. The only thing which seems wanting to make the suffrage really universal, is to get rid of the Toryism of sex, by admitting women to vote; and it will be a great test how far the bulk of your population deserve to have the suffrage themselves, their being willing or not to extend it to women. I am sorry, by the way, that the vulgar and insulting expression “manhood suffrage” has found its way to Australia. Whether so intended or not, it asserts the exclusion of women as a doctrine, which is worse than merely ignoring them as was done by giving the name universal suffrage to a suffrage limited to men. The adoption of the ballot in Victoria has made some noise here, and has been a good deal appealed to by its advocates in parliament. You have heard, no doubt, of the dinner given by Nicholson. It will perhaps surprise you that I am not now a supporter of the ballot, though I am far from thinking that I was wrong in supporting it formerly. You remember, I daresay, a passage which always seemed to me highly philosophical, in my father’s History of India, where he discriminates between the cases in which the ballot is in his estimation desirable and those in which it is undesirable: now I think that the election of members of parliament has passed, in the course of the last 25 years, out of the former class into the latter. In the early part of the century there was more probability of bad votes from the coercion of others, than from the voter’s own choice: but I hold that the case is now reversed, and that an elector gives a rascally vote incalculably oftener from his own personal or class interest, or some mean feeling of his own, the influence of which would be greater under secret suffrage than from the prompting of some other person who has power over him. Coercive influences have vastly abated, and are abating every day: a landlord cannot now afford to part with a good tenant because he is not politically subservient: and even if there were universal suffrage, the idea of a manufacturer forcing his workpeople to vote against the general feeling of their class, is almost out of the question: in this as in so many other things, defendit numerus. If these things are true in England, they must be still more true in Australia, where I cannot imagine that any artificial security can be required to ensure freedom of voting. But if there be even a doubt on the subject, the doubt ought surely to turn the scale in favour of publicity. Nothing less than the most positive and powerful reasons of expediency would justify putting in abeyance a principle so important in forming the moral character either of an individual or of a people, as the obligation on every one to be ready to avow and justify whatever he does, affecting the interests of others. I have long thought that in this lies the main advantage of the public opinion sanction: not in compelling or inducing people to act as public opinion dictates, but in making it necessary for them, if they do not, to have a firm ground in their own conviction to stand on, and to be capable of maintaining it against attack. I shall probably at some time write and publish something about the ballot, which will shew the grounds of my present opinion more fully, and perhaps more clearly, than I have now done. There is another constitutional point which I must touch upon, because you say you have quoted me on the subject, and my former opinion is, to say the least, very much shaken, the payment of members of parliament. There is, no doubt, something to be said for it, especially where, as you remark, there is no unoccupied class; but I am afraid of its raising up just such a class, of men without any fixed occupation but that of being in parliament, for the sake of the certain payment as members and the possible one as placemen. Certainly, by all accounts, the American legislatures, both state and federal, are very much composed of a low class of adventurers whose principal object is money, and some Americans have a decided opinion that the payment of members is one great cause of this. By the way, as you have quoted Bailey and me on this subject, I wish you would quote us on the subject of women’s suffrage also.—The representation of minorities seems to me not only a good but a highly democratic measure. The ideal of a democracy is not that a mere majority of the people should have all the representation, but that if possible every portion of the constituency should possess an influence in the election proportional to its numbers. This cannot be realized literally, but it seems to me a good arrangement that any portion of the constituency amounting to a third should be able to obtain a third of the representation, by concerting to aim at no more. This should not be done by limiting each voter to fewer votes than there are members to be elected, which curtailing the power of the individual voter, must always be unpopular. The plan I like is the cumulative method, which I am glad to see has been carried. This plan has also the advantage that when a voter can give all his votes to one person, intensity of preference carries weight as well as the mere fact of preference: an arrangement very favorable to candidates who stand on personal merit, as compared with those who are voted for only because they belong to a party. I see you think that this plan will increase the influence of the Irish Catholics: notwithstanding my good opinion of Duffy, I should be sorry for this result, but the objection is only temporary, and the advantage permanent.—About education and the public lands, you seem to be in the right track, and with a good prospect of keeping in it.
There is probably little I could tell you about English politics that you do not already know. The East India Company has fought its last battle, and I have been in the thick of the fight. The Company is to be abolished, but we have succeeded in getting nearly all the principles which we contended for, adopted in constituting the new government, and our original assailants feel themselves much more beaten than we do. The change though not so bad as at first seemed probable, is still, in my opinion, much for the worse. The difficulty of governing India in any tolerable manner, already so much increased by the mutiny and its consequences, will become an impossibility if a body so ignorant and incompetent on Indian (to say nothing of other) subjects as Parliament, comes to make a practice of interfering. In other respects, politics are more satisfactory than usual. The defeat of all the attempts to make England instrumental to keeping Louis Napoleon where he is, and the conversion of the Tory chiefs into temporary Radicals for the purpose of remaining in place, are the best things that have happened in Europe for a long time. The complete disconcerting of the old placehunters, and the failure of all their attempts to form a party are very agreeable and amusing to all but themselves.
I am
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
314.
TO PASQUALE VILLARI
le 8 juillet 1858
Mon cher Monsieur Villari
Il y a bientôt trois mois que je dois une réponse à votre dernière lettre, mais vous savez comme je suis occupé, et j’espère que vous m’excuserez. Celle de mes occupations qui est depuis quelque temps la plus pressante, tire maintenant à sa fin: la Compagnie des Indes, comme gouvernement, va cesser d’exister, mais elle périt avec un certain éclat, et on a suivi la plupart de ses conseils dans l’organisation du gouvernement qu’on va mettre à sa place. Ce résultat, contraire à l’attente générale, est dû en grande partie aux divers écrits que la Compagnie a fait paraître, et auxquels je n’ai pas été étranger. Malgré ce succès, je suis peu disposé à accepter une place dans la nouvelle administration, et je profiterai probablement de l’occasion pour obtenir ma retraite. Dans ce cas nous ferons usage de notre liberté pour voyager; mais la nouvelle loi donnant six mois pour effectuer le changement, je ne serai pas libre avant la fin de l’année, et dans le cas même où nous irions à Florence ce ne pourrait être qu’à un temps très éloigné.
Vos observations sur l’Inde sont d’une grande justesse, vû le peu de documents qui sont à votre portée. Vous avez surtout très justement apprécié le genre d’hommes qu’on a souvent nommés Gouverneurs de Bombay et de Madras. Les nominations à ces fonctions-là sont faites par le gouvernement, et non par la Compagnie; et le général Adam, dont vous parlez dans votre lettre, en fut un des plus nuls. Il est vrai aussi que les Anglais, en général, ne se font pas aimer des races indigènes, ce qui, au reste, se peut dire également des autres peuples européens qui gouvernent des pays éloignés, habités par d’autres races. Cependant les populations de l’Inde reconnaissent généralement que l’administration anglo indienne est juste. Elle ne les rançonne ni ne les tyrannise comme leurs propres chefs, et elle tâche de leur donner de bonnes lois et des tribunaux honnêtes et impartiaux, chose inconnue en Asie avant elle. Quant aux princes indigènes, et surtout à l’Oude, vous avez été mal informé, ce qui n’est pas étonnant. On n’a pas violé la foi des traités: au contraire, les traités exigeaient que les princes de l’Oude fissent une réforme complète de leur gouvernement atroce, et on les a par une fausse délicatesse laissé violer cet engagement pendant cinquante ans, en se contentant de remontrances qui n’étaient jamais suivies d’effet. Enfin on s’est lassé de cette indulgence, et on a dépossédé une famille indigne de régner, qui sans notre appui eût été chassée depuis longtemps: en lui assurant toutefois une grande richesse. Cette histoire serait trop longue pour une lettre, mais je pourrai vous la raconter quelque jour si elle vous intéresse.
votre dévoué
J. S. Mill
315.
TO LOUIS BLANC
le 9 Juillet 1858
Mon cher Monsieur Louis Blanc—
Pardonnez moi de n’avoir pas encore reconnu réception de votre excellent livre. D’abord je voulais le lire avant d’en parler, et plus tard je fus si occupé que j’ai ajourné toute lettre qui pouvait souffrir un retard. Je vous aurais assurément témoigné mes remerciments la première fois que je vous eusse vu.
C’est presqu’une chose heureuse qu’un homme léger et sans autorité comme Lord Normanby, ait reproduit les calomnies ridicules et atroces de 1848, puisque cela vous a donné une occasion de les écraser comme vous l’avez fait. Lord Normanby, comme l’aristocratie et la bourgeoisie anglaise en général, a tout simplement cru ce que lui disaient les contrerévolutionnaires français qu’il voyait, et dont l’opinion anglaise vulgaire est devenue l’écho. Parmi les membres du gouvernement provisoire, Lamartine est le seul qu’il voyait aussi, et le seul, par conséquent qu’il n’a pas injurié. S’il vous eût fréquenté, il aurait fait, de vous aussi, une exception. Ce n’est pas un malhonnête homme, mais il a toutes les faiblesses de sa classe, et entr’autres celle d’adopter sans examen, sur les affaires des autres pays, tout témoignage et tous les on dit de ceux qu’il regarde comme représentant l’opinion conforme à celle de son parti en angleterre. Tous ces mensongeslà étaient oubliés, mais l’impression restait, et il fallait qu’on les rappelât de l’oubli pour qu’il fût possible, en les réfutant, d’en atténuer l’effet. Il n’y a pas d’opinion à laquelle on tient aussi fortement qu’à celle dont on a oublié les fondements. Vous avez bien profité de l’occasion. Votre ouvrage sera historique, et ceux qui désirent la vérité pourront désormais en juger par eux-mêmes en comparant l’accusation et la réponse. Aussi vous avez dû voir que la réfutation n’a pas été sans effet. Toutes les notices qu’on a faites sur votre ouvrage, au moins toutes celles que j’ai vues, malgré l’extrême ignorance propre aux écrivains anglais sur la politique étrangère, laissent voir que si vous n’avez pas beaucoup ébranlé les préventions contraires aux hommes et aux événements de 1848, du moins on a ressenti l’effet de la loyauté et de la franchise de vos explications.
Vous n’êtes pas oublié ici. Ma femme vous cite souvent, et me prie de vous présenter ses compliments affectueux.
tout à vous
J. S. Mill
316.
TO HARRIET MILL
Sunday ¼ past 5
[July 11, 1858]
My dearest will I know want to hear whether I was in time for the train, and how I prospered, so I write immediately. Happily the N. Kent was only two or three minutes behind time, so I got to Euston station in ample time—& on getting to Derby, found I could go on in half an hour by railway to Ambergate, six miles from here. So all was right, and I have come from Ambergate here in a phaeton, along a valley a good deal like the Wye near Tintern—a narrow space of meadow between high & mostly thickly wooded hills, & even the river at the bottom looking nearly as large as the Wye though really much smaller as to quantity of water. This place as far as I could see it in coming & can see it from the window at which I am writing, seems quite a village, not at all the dressed up street like watering place I thought it might be—& the high hills & perpendicular cliffs come quite close to it. The weather has been all day & is now most beautiful & there has been no rain lately nor for a long while in Derbyshire & Leicestershire except two or three thunderstorms. The grass looks much more parched than with us, that is in the level country, for here they say there have been showers. The difference of climate is shewn in this that much of the grass is not yet carried, & some not cut. There seems a prospect of fine weather. Thanks to my precious darling for encouraging me to come. I am now going out for a stroll & shall come in to tea, having had a good dinner of soup & roast lamb at the Railway station at Derby, strange to relate. It seems fully as pretty as I expected & this seems a very clean & prettily situated, & not very pretentious inn though I do not think I shall like the people who keep it. I cannot yet tell my movements but will write tomorrow. If dear one writes tomorrow (which I shall not expect) direct Post Office Matlock. Adieu my own darling love.
Your
J.S.M.
317.
TO HARRIET MILL
Monday 2 o’clock
[July 12. 1858]
My dearest love, I have pretty well exhausted Matlock—yesterday evening I climbed the highest hill in this part of the country, the one called Masson, & between that walk & this morning’s I have gone to nearly every point & caught every view from both sides of this gorge of about a mile & a half in length. It is exceedingly pretty, some points even striking, but one sees the best at first: beyond a narrow compass one only passes or looks into country pretty indeed but in a tamer way. I should like to pass a day here with you but I question if we should care to stay longer. So I mean to go on to Chatsworth by a train at ¼ before 4. In case there is a letter tomorrow morning I shall not lose it, for as the distance is but ¼ of an hour by railway I shall run down here for it. In this way I shall make best use of my time. I have done pretty well as to plants & have had the best of weather—yesterday evening & night were of the most perfect brightness: today it is cloudy but warm, with occasional outbreaks of sunshine. It feels quite strange that yesterday morning we should have been talking of the necessity of my having a fire: all the care I have needed was to keep my feet cool. The people here say however that they have had it very cold a week ago—& two rainy days this last week. If you write tomorrow darling, please direct to Bakewell which seems the best centre, for Haddon Hall, Monsal & Millers-dales & even Castleton if I have time to go there. I shall write again tomorrow & then not on Wednesday or Thursday as she said, but on Friday. This watering place seems to have but few people as yet, & those of a rather humble character. There is but the least little bit of town if one can call it so, & the rest is houses dotted about a small portion of the side of a very steep slope. The opposite side of the gorge is steep woody cliff nearly the whole way, & the part of it called High Tor is a sort of Salève on a small scale. There are plenty of cut walks but no drives except the high road up the gorge. Adieu my darling from your own
J.S.M.
318.
TO HARRIET MILL
Tuesday 3 o’clock
[July 13. 1858]
I came on, dearest, from Matlock as I said, & when I got to Rowsley left my portmanteau to go by the omnibus & walked to & across Chatsworth to this inn which belongs to the Duke & is on the outskirts of the park: & in the evening I walked over all the finest parts of the park. All the way from Matlock is a broad valley between high, green, often wooded hills: at Rowsley it forks into two, in the lefthand of which is Bakewell; the righthand (rather the smaller valley but with the larger river) is filled up by Chatsworth. It is a very fine park & a great ugly clumsy house. This morning after going by railway to Matlock & back on the chance of a letter, I walked round by Haddon Hall, saw it, & made a circuit hither. Before I leave this evening for Bakewell I shall endeavour to see the conservatories of Chatsworth: the house I don’t want to see. Today began very hot, but the wind had changed a little to the west & the day got overcast & threatened rain; but there has been none as yet. I shall stay at Bakewell all tomorrow at any rate: whether I shall excurse from it to Castleton or go at once to Dovedale will depend upon the facilities I find. I hold to returning on Saturday, but it may perhaps be on Saturday night, so as to arrive on Sunday morning. If my precious love writes tomorrow, direct to Bakewell, as I shall not leave till the post comes in. After that if she goes to Folkestone it will not be worth while for her to write again, but I shall enquire on Saturday morning at Tissington near Ashbourne. I have been most unexpectedly fortunate in weather though there must have been more rain on the whole season here than further south, to judge by the extreme greenness of everything. I shall write again on Friday my darling wife, till then adieu & a thousand blessings such as you give to your
J.S.M.
319.
TO HARRIET MILL
Thursday evg.
[July 15-16. 1858]
My darling! I received her most precious letter yesterday morning and the pleasure it gave was almost worth the absence. As to prolonging my stay, what she so kindly & sweetly writes would induce me to do it, if it were not that this excursion has not quite fulfilled our expectations or rather hopes in the matter of health. I have found no deficiency of strength, but have never been without a dry furred tongue, & never many hours without other decided sensations of indigestion, & this in spite of the greatest care, & observance of your advice in every particular. An excursion of this sort is excellent to strengthen me against indigestion, but it does not perhaps tend so much to cure it when it exists. Perhaps the regularity of home may do better. I dare say however I shall be the better for this afterwards as has so often been the case. As I shall therefore see her on Sunday morning & she will not get this till Saturday, I will keep all description for a nice talk & will only say that, contrary to my expectation, the place which seems most suitable for us to make any stay at is Buxton which I walked to yesterday, returning on the top of the omnibus. On consideration I thought that Dovedale had not the étoffe of a place for more than a day, so I was driven there in a phaeton this morning from here—the place was not a disappointment but was soon seen & I have just come in from an eleven miles walk taken since I came back. Tomorrow morning I shall go to Castleton & shall have the greater part of tomorrow & the greater part of Saturday to spend there as I shall go from thence to Sheffield, no great distance, & return by a night train from there, arriving in town at about five on Sunday morning when I will rest a little & breakfast & then come home to my darling. The weather has been excellent—the last two afternoons there has been a little rain, not enough to do any harm, & tonight there has been a little since dusk, with some lightning. I found no plants Tuesday or today, but yesterday was a splendid day for them, as I found five, of which Jacob’s ladder was one. Adieu with a thousand loves from your
J.S.M.
Friday morng. I have only now got my darling’s second sweet & lovely letter—through the stupidity doubtless of the Post Office. One does not think it necessary in England to ask to look over the letters oneself, but I shd have done so if there had been none this morning. You see darling the reasons are strongest for going home. It has rained all night but seems as if it would clear for today. your own
320.
TO EDWIN CHADWICK
July 22. 1858
Dear Chadwick
Do not pay any regard to anything you may have heard or read about seven vacancies. They are the very bad guesses of people entirely uninformed. No one can have information, as the Directors do not themselves know whom they will elect, and the Government will not determine whom to nominate until it knows who have been elected. I do not think that any single vacancy is certain (or even very probable) except Guildford and I do not think it at all probable that Reigate will be vacated—but this is only my own guess, perhaps no better founded than those of others—and I beg you will not mention it. I do not think I shall have earlier information than yourself on the subject.
I find difficulty in getting sanitary information for you here. The best chance will be by your conferring personally with Mr Appleton of the Military Department in this house.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
321.
TO EDWIN CHADWICK
July 31. 1858
Dear Chadwick
Your paper is very good, and full of useful matter. I do not know if I can suggest any additions to it but I will go through it a second time with that view. There are some very bad misprints or lapsus calami in it, rendering several of the sentences obscure & confused.
If you want the paper returned immediately, drop me a line.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
I agree with you about the representation of minorities but not about effecting it by single votes, which would make the minority equal to the majority. I prefer Marshall’s plan of cumulative votes.
322.
TO JOHN WILLIAM PARKER
Aug. 5. 1858
Dear Sir
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the remaining £250 due on account of the fourth edition of the Political Economy.
I suppose you are delaying the account of the sale of the Logic & Essays last year, until there is a balance of profit.
Yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
323.
TO FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL
Aug. 23. 1858
Dear Sir
Pray excuse my not having sent this book sooner. It had been mislaid.
The apparently slow progress of Cooperation is not discouraging. It cannot progress more rapidly than the intelligence and moral feelings of operatives. The interest of each is indeed best promoted by the good of the whole, but no selfish person will ever know or believe this. It is just as well that cooperative experiments should only be attempted by those who are capable of making them succeed. Those which exist are most precious instruments of popular education. The Rochdale history is really glorious.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
324.
TO THEODOR GOMPERZ
East India House, August 30, 1858.
I . . . have been interested by the information as to your papers in the Rhinish Museum. I was disappointed however at your not saying anything of your historical work on Greek philosophy, which I expect will be very valuable not only by throwing new light on historical points, of which there are always a great number to be cleared up by any competent inquirer, but also by exhibiting the speculations of the ancients from the point of view of the experience philosophy, a thing hardly yet attempted, and least of all in your country.
I have no objection to your annexing to the Logic any part of the controversy with Whewell which you think likely to be useful. There are not many defences extant of the ethics of utility, and I have sometimes thought of reprinting this and other papers I have written on the same as well as on other subjects.
325.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE EXAMINER-OFFICE
East India House, Oct.2, 1858
Dear Sirs,—
I thank you heartily for your unsought and only too complimentary expression of the friendly feelings of which I had already received from you individually so many proofs. I have not long had the honour of presiding over you; but during that time, if it had been the sole object of all of you to make my situation agreeable to me, you could not have more effectually exerted yourselves for that purpose.
It is no mere reciprocation of politeness when I say that I have been proud of my associates; and my feelings on my retirement would have been very different from what they are, were it not for the conviction that I leave behind me an office surpassed by none and equalled by few in the high qualities of the chiefs of departments, and the general efficiency of the establishment.
Believe me to be, gentlemen, with sincere regard, yours faithfully and obliged,
J. S. Mill
326.
TO HELEN TAYLOR
Lyons Oct 21. [1858]
Dear Lily
Mama is decidedly better today, and has no doubt that she shall be quite well with two or three days more rest. Her head is a great deal better than yesterday, but still it aches with the least exertion, and therefore she asks me to write for her. It has been one of the usual attacks of fever. She has taken the fever mixture and some pills, and it is now over. She is very weak, and does not mean to get up till tomorrow, when she has ordered a warm bath in the bedroom which she says will quite set her up. This is the exact state of the case, therefore be sure there is nothing to be uneasy about. As it is doubtful if they deliver letters on Sunday she will not write again till Saturday. If this reaches you in time to write a word to Avignon on Saturday, it will be sure to be in time, we shall go so slowly: or you might even write on Sunday with scarcely a chance of not being in time: besides that at the worst it would be sent on. And now, Mama says, adieu dear—as do I. Yours
J.S.M.
327.
TO DR. CECIL GURNEY
Oct. 28. 1858
Dear Dr Gurney,
My wife is lying at the Hotel de l’Europe here, so very ill that neither she nor I have any hope but in you to save her. It is a quite sudden attack which came on at Lyons, of incessant coughing which prevents sleeping, and by the exhaustion it produces has brought her to death’s door. I implore you to come immediately. I need hardly say that any expense whatever will not count for a feather in the balance. I am Dear Dr Gurney
very truly yours
J. S. Mill
328.
TO HELEN TAYLOR
[ Oct. 29 or 30? 1858]
Dear Lily
Mama has had a tremendous attack of bronchitis with congestion & fever much worse than at Lyons. We have done everything possible & today for the first time she is a little better. The cough has been unceasing & most painful preventing her lying down day or night or getting any sleep besides that the intense nervous irritation caused by the congestion the fever & the fatigue made her almost out of her mind. We have had the best physician here but his prescriptions are too weak. She has taken a number of her own. On Thursday she did not think she shd recover. She thought you wd see by her letters from Lyons how ill she was but she did not like to alarm you. Today she is certainly better. The cough is less frequent & the head for the first time more calm. We took every precaution on the road. She was carried by the porters in a chair to the railway at Lyons & we had a coupé to ourselves from Valence here but she says the whole [?] incidents of such a journey are totally unfitted for her. The excessive hardship of every part—the inability to have anything fit for a delicate stomach to eat, the tremendous noise everywhere, the coarse manners of the women, the intense fatigue of waiting in the railway rooms for at least half an hour & then the immense distance to go both to & from them. This inn is thought one of the best in France & we appear to have the best rooms yet bedrooms & sitting room are of red tiles with thin carpet over wch she endeavoured to obviate the first day by using a footstool but in vain—but still far more than all the evident fatal effect upon her of the air of the S[outh] of F[rance]. She dragged herself up to write you a few words on Wedy that you might not be anxious, hoping it wd prove as she said—but she felt ill as she wrote & got gradually worse till at night she was very ill. She does not wish you to come to her because she thinks she has taken the turn to get better & therefore it wd be a very great pity to break up your good arrangements wch are a great pleasure to her to hear of. You shall know continually how she is going on. We have got all your letters from Montp[ellier] today here & continue to write here for it will probably be weeks before we leave this place. All notice of your letters must be at a future time.
She is anxious that you shd not think of coming to her. She wd be extremely annoyed if you did.
J.S.M.
And now she says adieu dear girl in haste.
329.
TO HELEN TAYLOR
- Hotel de l’Europe
Avignon
Nov. 1. 1858
Cable
By the Electrical and International Telegraph Company.
She is not better or perhaps worse have written to beg Dr G[urney] to come.
330.
TO THE MAYOR OF AVIGNON
[After November 3, 1858]
Monsieur le Maire,
Par vos fonctions officielles, vous avez eu connaissance du malheureux événement qui a créé pour ma famille avec la ville que vous administrez un lien indissoluble. Nous croyons ne pouvoir rendre un meilleur hommage à celle que nous avons perdue qu’en faisant autant que possible les choses que, vivante, elle eût voulu faire; et comme elle n’aurait pas pu venir s’établir à Avignon sans que les malheureux de cette ville en eussent profité, nous souhaitons que, dans la triste circonstance où nous nous trouvons, ils aient encore à la remercier de quelque chose. Veuillez donc, monsieur le maire, accepter au profit de la Caisse des pauvres le don de mille francs, somme proportionnée à nos facultés plutôt qu’à nos désirs, et que nous vous prions de vouloir bien inscrire au nom de ma bien-aimée épouse, Mme Henriette Mill, née Hardy, décédée à Avignon le 3 novembre 1858.
Agréez. . . .
J. Stuart Mill
331.
TO JAMES BENTHAM MILL
[After November 3, 1858]
[Mill, in writing to his brother James after his bereavement, says:—]
When I was happy, I never went after any one; those that wanted me might come to me.
332.
TO WILLIAM THOMAS THORNTON
Nov. 9, 1858
My dear Thornton—
The hopes with which I commenced this journey have been fatally frustrated. My wife, the companion of all my feelings, the prompter of all my best thoughts, the guide of all my actions, is gone! She was taken ill at this place with a violent attack of bronchitis or pulmonary congestion—the medical men here could do nothing for her, & before the physician at Nice who saved her life once before could arrive, all was over.
It is doubtful if I shall ever be fit for anything public or private, again. The spring of my life is broken. But I shall best fulfil her wishes by not giving up the attempt to do something useful, and I am not quite alone. I have with me her daughter, the one person besides myself who most loved her & whom she most loved, & we help each other to bear what is inevitable. I am sure of your sympathy, but if you knew what she was you would feel how little any sympathy can do.
We return straight to England but shall be detained here for some days longer & I beg of you the kind office of inserting the inclosed notice twice in the Times & once in the Post, Herald & Daily News & in the principal weekly papers. Believe me my dear Thornton
very sincerely yours
[The Notice]
Died on the 3d November, at Avignon, after a few days illness, to the inexpressible grief & irreparable loss of those who survive her, Harriet, the dearly loved wife of John Stuart Mill, late of the East India House.
333.
TO DR. HENRY CECIL GURNEY
Blackheath Nov. 24. 1858
Dear Dr Gurney
The sum which Sir J.O. received shall be paid into your banker’s as soon as the proceeds of the sale of some securities come in which will be on the 1st of December. It is well earned by the sacrifices you made & above all, the risks you incurred to health & practice in the hope of saving that precious life—& though I am not in circumstances to think lightly of such a sum, I never less grudged any payment. Would to God it had been all I have & that we had written to you three days sooner! You did all that man could, & your presence was an immense good to us even as it was. We have only just arrived here, having remained at Avignon to see her removed to her (& our) last resting place & to complete the purchase of a small house & garden near the cemetery which we shall now frequently require. Helen’s health kept up while we remained at Avignon but broke down as soon as we arrived here: She is however better today & I hope is doing well. She begs to be kindly remembered to you. To myself the return to the place which is full of memories unlike those of that dreadful time is soothing—but no one except ourselves can know what a blank our life now is.
I am dear Dr Gurney
ever yours truly
J. S. Mill
334.
TO HERBERT SPENCER
Nov. 25. 1858
Dear Sir
I trust you will not have supposed that your note would have remained unanswered from any other cause than my not having received it. It came into my hands two days ago, on my returning from a journey on the Continent, which was abruptly closed by the most melancholy event which could possibly have happened to me. I have now next to nothing left to care for in life, except to use such power as I have of helping forward my opinions—which it is uncertain if I shall ever again have energy enough, even if left to myself I had wisdom enough, effectually to serve by anything I can write. I have only the greater desire to be useful to fellow labourers in the same field of usefulness, and I have so many opinions and modes of thinking in common with you that I regard you as one of the principal of these. You may therefore rely on me in any quarter in which I have influence—but I have no ground for believing that Lord Stanley is one of these. I have seen him in private just three times—the first was when he offered me a place in the Council of India —the last when I took leave of him on my retirement. We have conversed exactly once on any topic of public interest. He has on these different occasions been very polite and flattering, but I have no reason to think that he retained any interest in me from the time when he knew that I was not going to serve under him. The mode of transacting business which he has adopted, almost exclusively with the Chairmen of Committees of Council, has not brought him into much contact with the officers of the India House, and I had therefore no opportunity of acquiring any influence with him. This being the case it would be an impertinence in me to volunteer any recommendation to him, especially if it relates to the patronage of another minister, a case in which, as I know, ministers have generally the strongest feeling of delicacy about intermeddling even in the slightest manner. I am therefore unable to help you in the way you propose; but if you think it can be of any use to you to mention me, in any terms however strong, either verbally or in writing, to any minister or other person whatever, as one who would derive the greatest satisfaction both public and private from your obtaining what you seek—and who would think it a credit to any minister to obtain the aid of abilities and principles like yours for the public service, and an absolute disgrace not to avail himself of them when offered—you have my fullest authority to do this—and there are some members even of the present Government, especially Bulwer and Disraeli, on whom so decided an opinion from me if known to them might perhaps have some influence.
I am Dear Sir
Yrs very faithfully
J. S. Mill
335.
TO GEORGE GROTE
Blackheath, 28th November 1858
My dear Grote
I knew that you would feel with me and for me. Your letter has done as much good to me and to my fellow-sufferers as we are now capable of receiving.
If I were to attempt to express in the most moderate terms what she was, even you would hardly believe me. Without any personal tie, merely to have known her as I do would have been enough to make life a blank now that she has disappeared from it. I seem to have cared for things or persons, events, opinions on the future of the world, only because she cared for them: the sole motive that remains strong enough to give any interest to life is the desire to do what she would have wished; but will this give the strength or the energy to do any new thing? Perhaps not. I shall try, however. I can at least put in order for publication what had been already written in concert with her, and this is my occupation for the present.
Pray express to Mrs Grote my gratitude for her kind sympathy. I will write again soon.
336.
TO HERBERT SPENCER
Nov. 28. 1858
Dear Sir
The concluding words of my note were for yourself only. But you have my full authority to say, to all and sundry, wherever and whenever it can be of any use to you, that I take the strongest interest in your application, that I should derive the greatest satisfaction both on private and on public grounds from your success, and (in the words I before used) should think it a credit to any minister to obtain the aid of abilities and principles like yours for the public service, and an absolute disgrace not to avail himself of them when offered.
I am Dear Sir
Yours very faithfully
J. S. Mill
Herbert Spencer Esq.
337.
TO JOHN WILLIAM PARKER
Nov. 30. 1858
Dear Sir
You can have my little book “On Liberty” for publication this season. The manuscript is ready; but you will probably desire to look through it, or to have it looked through by some one in whom you confide, as there are some things in it which may give offence to prejudices.
Should you decide to publish it, I propose that we should make the same arrangement as we made for the Political Economy, viz. to publish one edition at half profit, and if another is called for, make a fresh agreement respecting it.
I have also, prepared for publication, a selection of my articles published in periodicals which I should like to bring out somewhat later in the season. If it would suit you, I propose the same terms. There are enough to make, I should think, two volumes of the size & type of the early editions of Carlyle’s Miscellanies: but I have not calculated exactly, and it may extend to three. I send you a list of the subjects.
I am Dear Sir
very truly yrs
J. S. Mill
- 1. The Right & Wrong of State Interference with Corporation & Church Property.
- 2. The Currency Juggle.
- 3. A few remarks on The French Revolution.
- 4. Thoughts on Poetry & its Varieties.
- 5. Professor Sedgwick’s Discourse on the Studies of Cambridge.
- 6. Civilization.
- 7. Aphorisms.
- 8. Armand Carrel.
- 9. Writings of Alfred de Vigny.
- 10. Bentham.
- 11. Coleridge.
- 12. Tocqueville on Democracy in America.
- 13. Bailey on Berkeley’s Theory of Vision.
- 14. Michelet’s History of France.
- 15. The Claims of Labour.
- 16. Guizot’s Essays & Lectures on History.
- 17. Early Grecian History & Legend.
- 18. Vindication of the French Revolt of February 1848, in reply to Lord Brougham & others.
- 19. Enfranchisement of Women.
- 20. Whewell on Moral Philosophy.
- 21. Grote’s History of Greece.
338.
TO ALEXANDER BAIN
[November ? 1858]
[In reply to my condolence, he said] I have recovered the shock as much as I ever shall. Henceforth, I shall be only a conduit for ideas.
339.
TO LOUIS NICOLAS MÉNARD
B[lackheath] P[ark] 1 Decembre 1858.
Mon cher M. Ménard—
Comme vous avez bien voulu témoigner le désir d’avoir de nos nouvelles, j’écris uniquement pour vous en donner, car je ne me sens pas encore capable d’écrire une lettre qui puisse vous intéresser à tout autre égard. Nous sommes arrivés sans accident et la santé de ma chère fille s’est soutenue jusqu’à la fin du voyage mais pour s’ébranler aussitôt après. Dès le lendemain elle fut malade mais elle est à présent à peu près rétablie et j’espère qu’elle s’y maintiendra. Elle et son frère se recommandent à votre souvenir. Quant à moi j’ai éprouvé un véritable soulagement en me retrouvant dans le lieu où nous avons vécu heureux avec celle que nous déplorons, et où son image n’est pas mêlée aux souvenirs déchirants de sa dernière maladie. Votre ville et tout le pays du midi me seraient en horreur si son tombeau n’y était pas—ce qui en fait pour moi un lieu non seulement sacré mais le seul, sauf celui-ci, qui me soit cher.
J’espère que l’éditeur de la traduction française de mon Ec.Pol. vous en a envoyé de ma part un exemplaire. Vous y trouverez, si je ne me trompe, autre chose qu’un simple traité scientifique, et j’aime à croire que ce que vous y verrez de mes opinions et de mes sentiments ne sera pas de nature à affaiblir la sympathie morale et intellectuelle que vous avez semblé ressentir envers moi.
Agréez mon cher M Ménard avec l’expression de notre reconnaissance, celle de mon amitié et de mon dévouement.
J.S.M.
J’espère que Mme M. se porte bien et que la santé de votre petite demoiselle se rétablit.
340.
TO THEODOR GOMPERZ
B[lackheath] P[ark], Dec. 4, 1858
Dear Sir—
Your letter found me under the shock of the bitterest calamity which could possibly have fallen on me. I have lost by a death, which may almost be called sudden, my perfect friend, companion, guide, teacher, all in one. The little you saw of her may have been enough to make you surmise that there was much more to see, but nothing I could say could give you the smallest idea of what she was or of what her loss is to me.
You will not wonder that I care very little now for speculative controversies. I am obliged to you however for sending Professor Apelt’s treatise, & the other pamphlet. I have not yet looked into them, but the passages you cite from Apelt are sufficient to convince me that I should not in any case have thought of answering him. If you are yourself inclined to append to the translation any remarks on his objections, they are sure to be fresher & more vigorous than mine would be, & are likely to be a valuable addition to the book itself.
I wait with much expectation for your historical essay. My small volume on Liberty will be published early this winter. Its subject is moral, social, & intellectual liberty, asserted against the despotism of society whether exercised by governments or by public opinion.
341.
TO ARTHUR HARDY
Dec. 5—1858
My dear Sir—
Before receiving this you will already have heard the terrible & most unexpected blow which has fallen upon us. I have not felt equal to writing to you before & now when I do, language is so utterly incapable of expressing such a loss, or what that loss is to us, that it is sickening to attempt it. But you will desire to know some of the sad details. We left England on the 12th of October, intending to pass the winter at Hyères, where she had wintered once before or at some other place in the south of France. For the first time we were able to do as we pleased as I had just retired from the I. H. & we were looking forward to a happy half year or year in a mild climate. She was apparently in her usual health, perhaps even better than usual, & as fit for travelling as when she set out on other much longer journeys by which her health had not suffered but benefitted. She continued pretty well up to Lyons, but when there she had a sharp feverish attack, which yielded to the usual remedies but left a good deal of cough behind it. We staid there a week, at the end of which she felt sufficiently recovered to go slowly onward, but the day after we arrived at Avignon she was again taken very ill—she was better the next day, but the improvement was not progressive—and a great shortness of breathing came on. She had the best medical men the place afforded but as usual with French physicians their remedies were not sufficiently powerful & after a few days becoming alarmed though we never suspected immediate danger, I wrote to Dr Gurney of Nice who attended her in a dangerous illness there in 1853, asking him to come over & see her. He came instantly but found all at an end! The very day before her last we thought her illness had taken a favorable turn. From the symptoms Dr Gurney thinks the cause of death was excessive & violent congestion of the lungs. She is buried in the cemetery of the town of Avignon & with her all our earthly happiness; we have henceforth no interest in life but to fulfil her wishes in all we can, & to return continually to her grave. We have bought a small house & garden near the cemetery, where we shall go early in spring & intend to pass much of our time there until our turn comes for being buried along with her. Algernon would have written to you if I had not, but I wished to write myself if able. He & Helen are pretty well, though Helen at one time broke down & had an attack of illness, but fortunately it proved short. It is useless to write more. Believe me yrs very truly
Arthur Hardy Esq
342.
TO JOHN WILLIAM PARKER
Dec. 6. 1858.
Dear Sir
I understand that a difficulty has arisen with respect to the publication of my friend Mr Bain’s second volume (which completes his work as an Analytical Treatise on the Mind) in consequence of the limited sale of the first volume, which though not discouraging as to prospects of ultimate success, has not yet repaid its expenses. Both Mr Grote and myself are very desirous that the remaining volume should be published, as it is more popular than the first both in subject and in execution and we think it likely not only to sell better but to add to the sale of its predecessor. We are therefore willing, if you will publish the second volume this season, to guarantee you against loss by it, to the extent of £100 (that is each of us to the extent of £50). I mean that if at the end of such time as you would be willing to wait for indemnification (and which should be agreed on) you are still a loser by vol. 2 we will make up the loss if short of £100, & pay £100 towards it if greater; the subsequent proceeds being applied to our indemnification.
I should like to stipulate that if we then pay up the whole of your loss by both volumes, the entire copyright should belong to us—that is to Mr Bain himself to whom we should transfer it. I am
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
343.
TO JANE MILL FERRABOSCHI
Dec. 13. 1858
Dear Jane
Your letter to Avignon was sent to me here. I thank you for your expressions of sympathy. But you cannot know, nor can anything I could say enable you to conceive, the immensity of my loss.
I am glad to hear that your health is so much better. When you write to Mary or Harriet, please to thank them for their letters, and to give my best remembrances to Mr Ferraboschi.
Yrs affy
J. S. Mill
344.
TO EDWIN CHADWICK
Dec. 21. [1858]
Dear Chadwick
I am quite disposed to give you such help as I can in fighting the questions you are at work upon. In happier circumstances I might have assisted actively by personal exertions. I always meditated joining the Law Amendment Society when we returned from abroad. I can now only work with my pen. You shall have the letter you mention, if you think it would be useful to the object, but before writing it I should like to read your paper once more quietly through.
With regard to Parliamry Reform, what you urge me to do is already done. I have a pamphlet by me, written several years ago, which only required a little adaptation to the present time. This it has received, and I propose publishing it about the time of the meeting of Parliament. If the knowledge of this would in any way interest Lord Grey, I should be glad that you should tell him. I cannot hope that he will agree with the whole of what I have written, but I believe he will with a considerable part of it. I am
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
345.
TO MARY MILL COLMAN
Dec. 22 1858
Dear Mary—
I received your letter addressed to Avignon & in writing recently to Jane I asked her to thank you for it.
You always write as if you had some great reason to complain of me & as if some caprice of mine had been the cause of the estrangement as you call it. I have always told you & now repeat that your own conduct & manifestations of feeling were the sole cause of the existence of any estrangement & you have given no sign from that time to this that your conduct and feelings had been in any way wrongly interpreted.
J.S.M.
346.
TO EDWIN CHADWICK
Dec. 30. 1858
Dear Chadwick
I am obliged to you for the opportunity of reading Lord Grey’s paper, and am glad that he is applying himself to the subject with a view both to present exigencies and to permanent principles. It is very desirable that his suggestions should be made as public as possible to invite discussion and call out other modes of effecting the same object. The essential is, as you observe, that the object itself should be recognized as necessary. My own thoughts on the matter have been travelling in a rather different channel, except as to the representation of minorities, which I have long held to be of the utmost importance, and also that the cumulative voting which Lord Grey advocates is the best mode of effecting it. His suggestion of the choice of a certain number of members by the House itself seems to me very valuable. I have often thought of it as a good mode of constituting an Upper House in a democratic constitution, but never before as applicable to any of the members of the Lower House itself. But I do not think they should, in the latter case, be chosen for life. There are considerable objections to making a small, and the least popular section of the House, a kind of privileged order within it, and still greater objections to their being irremovable. And what weighs with me quite as much, is the importance, when working against the current, of retaining whatever advantage is to be found in adhering to the old constitutional landmarks. It conflicts with everybody’s idea of a House of Commons that any of its members should hold their seats for life. The same objection applies still more strongly to the proposal that the Crown should appoint a certain number of members by warrant. There would not, I think, be a chance that this could be carried, or that even if carried it would be permanent, and it seems unnecessary, since election by the House itself at the commencement of each Parliament would answer the same purpose. The ministers, being the leaders of the majority, would in fact nominate two thirds of the number, while the provision for cumulative voting would give a similar power over the remaining third to the leaders of the Opposition: and each side would have a strong interest in selecting to be brought into Parliament in this manner the persons who would most strengthen the party. In spite of these and all other objections, I should much prefer Lord Grey’s plan exactly as it is, to a low suffrage and equal electoral districts without any regulating counterpoise.
Your letter in the D. News is excellent. But I am afraid, on that subject as on so many others, jacta est alea.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
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